Connecticut prosecutor seeks reinstatement as lawyer

By Dave Collins, The Associated Press

The Bulletin

By Dave Collins, The Associated Press

Posted Nov. 19, 2013 at 1:29 PM

By Dave Collins, The Associated Press
Posted Nov. 19, 2013 at 1:29 PM

HARTFORD — A Connecticut prosecutor fired last year for secretly photographing and video recording women at the Danbury courthouse is asking a state judge to reinstate his privileges to practice law, saying in a court document that his "disability" has been "removed."

David Holzbach of Bethel was fired in August 2012 after being caught in a courtroom with a large pen containing a concealed video camera. At the request of the state chief disciplinary counsel, a judge in December revoked Holzbach's ability to practice law by placing him on indefinite inactive status for violating court rules on cameras.

Holzbach, who wasn't criminally charged, had been reprimanded for similar conduct in 1992 and 2006 by former Danbury State's Attorney Walter Flanagan and had amassed four boxes of photographs of women, according to an internal investigation report written last year by current State's Attorney Stephen Sedensky III.

According to Sedensky's report to Chief State's Attorney Kevin Kane, Holzbach admitted to regularly video recording female attorneys and courthouse employees in courtrooms, the state's attorney's office and the parking lot of Danbury Superior Court, focusing on their legs. The report also said the boxes of pictures Holzbach kept in his office included depictions of women being bound, gagged and subjected to other degrading behavior.

In 2010 or 2011, Holzbach also disobeyed Sedensky's order to stop bringing a Nintendo DS hand-held gaming device containing a camera to work, the report said. Sedensky said he had been told that Holzbach was using it to photograph people coming into the courthouse.

Holzbach couldn't be reached Tuesday. His phone number is unlisted. A message seeking comment was left for his attorney, Dennis McDonough.

A status conference on Holzbach's application for reinstatement to the Connecticut Bar is scheduled for Monday at Waterbury Superior Court.

In the application, McDonough wrote that "the respondent (Holzbach) states that the disability has been removed and that the respondent is fit to resume the practice of law." The document doesn't elaborate on the disability.

Officials with the chief disciplinary counsel's office didn't return messages Tuesday. The office hasn't filed any opposition to Holzbach's request to be reinstated, according to the court docket.

Sedensky declined to comment Tuesday on Holzbach's application. He said Holzbach's conduct did not violate any criminal laws.

Connecticut does have a law against voyeurism, but it's only a crime if the person being secretly recorded isn't in "plain view." Voyeurism is a felony that carries one to five years in prison upon conviction.